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    "localId": "183523392",
    "label": "Interim Review of the Billie Sol Estes Matter, U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 26, 1962",
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    "title": "Interim Review of the Billie Sol Estes Matter, U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 26, 1962",
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    "ocrText": "- 37 -\nMiller advised the Department in an affidavit that Jacobs instructed him\nto write a memorandum justifying a Departmental decision \"to permit\nBillie Sol Estes to retain all of the cotton allotments he had acquired\nat\nthat time. He also stated that he had disagreed with Jacobs, but\n\"considered I had no alternative under the circumstances. In his\naffidavit, Miller also said that Jacobs told him that \"Estes would be\nwilling to settle for the allotments he had already received and this\nwas in accordance with the wishes of Under Secretary Murphy.\"\nIn neither of two interviews with the FBI (April 19, 1962 and May 29, 1962),\nheld in the course of the Government's investigation of the Estes case,\ndid Miller disclose that he had prepared such a memorandum or that the\nrecommendations contained in that memorandum had been suggested by Jacobs.\nJacobs stated, upon being questioned on June 15, 1962 that he had sent\nMiller to Texas, but that he had not instructed him to submit a slanted\nreport.\nUnder Secretary Murphy, in a statement on the Miller memorandum, said\n.I told Jacobs, as the meeting broke up (January 6, 1962), to\nmake sure that whoever was sent would be objective and open-minded. My\ninstructions did not go beyond that.\n\"Thomas Miller WELS one of those mentioned as a possible person to be sent.\nIn this connection, I do not recollect ever having met Miller, never\nknew that Miller actually went to Texas, never talked to him when he\nreturned, never saw his report and never knew that he had filed a report\nuntil the past few days.'\nSecretary Freeman ordered a formal reprimand for Miller on June 25, 1962,\npointing out that Miller was cooperating fully with the Department, the\nMcClellan Committee and the FBI. An investigation of the matter was\ncontinued.\nOn January 31, 1962, a memorandum was sent from the Deputy Administrator,\nState and County Operations, ASCS, to the Texas State Committee instruct-\ning It to furnish to each seller of land to which pooled cotton allot-\nments had been transferred for 1961 BL form of \"seller's certification of\nbona, fide sale of land. This document was to be executed by the seller\nbefore B. Notary Public and wals designed primarily to afford the seller\nan opportunity to establish that the sale of land to the displaced\nowners was in fact a bona fide transaction."
}